Released From The Tides - The Waves of Fate And The Dream of One
by Ultima-Proxy
Summary: Yumi a Winged-Elf Archer, and Dieter, his best friend, the Cleric are just helping out with odd jobs around their beloved City of The Plume when a well kept secret escapes the Tideborn race and turns their world (and the Perfect World) upside down. Follow them on their journey to discover everything and hopefully find a way to suppress the Wraiths. Expect some mild gore later on.
1. Prologue

**A Tideborn Story**

_**The Waves of Fate and the Dream of One**_

Can you really hate perfection when it is all you crave?

Don't be such a hypocrite.

Your time will come.

_They called it the "Perfect World"._

_But how could something so perfect be rotting to its core with malice?_

_I can no longer see perfection; it is but a fleeting dream in the quest for survival._

_Everything is a lie…_

_(Why?)_

_Honesty doesn't exist._

_Friendship is meaningless._

_Hate is pure._

_(How?)_

_Love is tainted._

_Life is without originality._

_Death is without an enemy._

_I am without feeling._

_(Hollow.)_

_It is what it is._

_I am what I am._

_Nothing can change._

_(But.)_

_Nothing can stay the same._

_Nothing is everything._

_(And.)_

_Everything is mine._

_Explain to me your "Perfect World"._

_It is a delusion of the hopeful who do not belong._

_(No.)_

_I am right and you are wrong._

_You are weak but I am strong._

_I can change reality into your delusion._

_Enter my dominion and become one with the malice for it is the only way to destroy it._

**Prologue of War, The Suffering of One  
**

_**Gone. A life that just won't heal. Locked away.  
**_

Two red eyes shining in the twilight. A dark blue and purple sky dotted with stars, glimmering, allowing a dim light to illuminate the situation. Dead. They were all dead, these creatures, whatever they were. Blood stained the land and tainted the shimmering orange glow from the two overly-large daggers that were being grasped tightly by two, also blood-stained, hands.

Tears rolling down two dirtied cheeks, soil, blood and the vapour that hung strong in the air covered the skin, a perfect home ruined, all the residents dead, except for one; the one who was standing amidst all the death and destruction. This was the life destined for those who know not of Pan Gu, the creator, although it was through no fault of their own, this race was doomed, at least it seemed that way. This was always how it turned out, no warning, no defence, no escape.

A skirmishing crew from the Nightspike had come again tonight, ransacked, raided and utterly destroyed the home of this single Tideborn assassin. A fire burned weakly in the background, but she couldn't even tell that was the building she had once called her home, her husband and child were probably somewhere among the wreckage but she couldn't bring herself to look.

A movement. Within seconds the woman had yanked the body up from the ground and pinned it against one of the giant mushrooms which dotted the landscape, seemingly a replacement for all human-known shrubbery. It was one of those creatures, the Nightspike, she felt disgusted just touching it. _Cough, splutter. _This Nightspike was barely alive and had a few seconds left at best, and with that it let out a victorious growl before its body went limp and lifeless.

A sharp, stinging pain began to grow from the female assassin's stomach, she went to grasp at her stomach but was surprised to find she could not reach that area. A foreign object, sharp and long with a sort of black smoke radiating from it, a Nightspike weapon. Just as soon as she realised what had happened it had gone. Turning around to get a grip on her surroundings she saw, at least five more Nightspike standing in front of her, evil smirks painted across their dirtied faces. Without a sound the woman dropped to the ground, clutching her stomach, the Nightspike walking away with loud cackles and war cries couldn't care less about these people anymore tonight.

Looking back towards the remains of her house the woman was horrified, through her blurred vision she could see, clearly, her daughter walking towards her, hand pressed tightly over her right eye, tears of blood trickling down her face. She tried to speak to her daughter but no words could be formed, no sound could be made, only a smile, a smile was all she could manage to try and comfort her child.

Several hours passed before a relief squad arrived with medical supplies and reinforcements but it was too late, the village was no more, the lone survivor a little girl tightly clutching her mother's hand. There was nothing anyone could do at this point, the girl was taken along with the body of her mother to the Elder of the Tideborn race in the City of Raging Tides. There he (the Elder) and his best apothecary examined the young girl, although she would live, bruises, cuts and broken bones are easily fixable, there was a bigger problem. Her right eye had been crushed when her house caved in on her during the Nightspike assault she would live the rest of her life with the use of only one eye but telling the girl that on this night would have most likely killed her so they waited overnight. Or at least they were supposed to, once the apothecary had headed home the Elder walked into the room where the girl was sleeping a restless sleep. She awoke to him patting her head and smiling warmly a while passed and the two had walked a few levels below the main temple in the capital city, arriving at a dark medical room, in which lay the body of the girl's mother.

She knew the risks but it was the only way she felt she could continue on living, an old forbidden operation in which the eyes of the dead are transplanted into the living, forbidden for good reason, all who had received this treatment had lost their mind and given into an impure emotion, although no one knew exactly what happened, every single patient had experienced episodes of extreme rage and, in some cases, seemingly demonic powers which all ended with the individual committing mass murder to anyone and everyone they saw with those eyes. A few hours later the girl woke up back in the room she was assigned to the night before with a white medical eyepatch covering her right eye and a searing pain travelling from the back of her head to the tip of her right eye.

"A red and green eye shining in the twilight. They'll be the last thing you see… At least that's how the legend goes, right Dieter?"

"…Whatever you say, Yumi." Dieter nonchalantly replied, a somewhat short response after Yumi had recounted a delightfully scarring story to his Cleric friend. "Anyway we don't have time for this, dummy, we have to get going to Plume, it was your idea to start on this magnificent journey to protect the world from the wraiths and signed up to help with the Elder, we'll be late!" he continued.

"Ah, you worry too much Dieter. Errand boys don't have a set schedule; we'll get there when we get there." Yumi, the carefree archer stretched and mentally prepared himself for the day.


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One: Unending Simplicity, Tidal Undertaking**

_**The chronicles of Yumi and Dieter.**_

Walking was a nice change of pace for the Winged-Elf duo, they'd surely be up in the skies for the most part of the day, travelling from place to place, helping the good people of Plume City. Sure, it was a bit of a pain flying all day, collecting herbs and materials for the apothecaries and blacksmiths broken up only by a couple of snack breaks and cutting down on the number of Wraiths surrounding the town. That was the worst part of it, no matter how many small-fry Wraith creatures they'd killed in order to keep the City and outlying villages safe their numbers never seemed to diminish, if anything their population was the exact same the next day.

They were taking the road to the city, it wasn't in any way quicker than walking through the forest or cutting across the plains and neither was it any safer, but it just felt right to walk along a path. It's not like many other people did, all the other Winged-Elves they'd seen walking out here seemed to completely ignore the path, almost as if it wasn't there. It was pointless to think about something so trivial in such detail but Yumi had become incredibly bored of the routine he'd been stuck in. His errands had stayed much the same as the day he started; maybe add a few more things to the list of materials to collect.

"Man, when will we get to help out with the big stuff? The army's constantly recruiting for the battle against the wraiths and we're stuck at home helping out shopkeepers." Moaning as usual for Yumi.

"Let it go, Yumi, I'd rather be helping out the people here than get thrust straight to the frontline to die without any experience." Dieter rebutted with his 'voice of reason'.

"Yeah, but, we'd be fine, we're the best team out there!" A strong, if very foolish, proclamation from Yumi. "There's no one-"

"You can barely meditate, most of the great heroes of this war had studied for years in the way of spiritual cultivation. I don't think there's any way we could take on a single one of the Wraiths outside Archosaur." Dieter cut Yumi off, someone had to before he actually followed through with another one of his reckless plans.

Their back and forth continued all the way until they reached Plume City, a stunning place to all, constructed around a single giant tree. There was always a calming aura to Plume, a constant green glow emanated from the giant tree, a truly beautiful place, it's too bad the Wraiths didn't think so, they'd attacked the city more times than the Elder could count.

"Good morning, Elder." Yumi politely greeted the elder of Plume City with a slight bow and a warm smile.

"Yes, good morning." Dieter followed suit, just like every other Winged-Elf around they had nothing but the highest respect for their Elder, she had fought in many battles against the Wraiths and come out of every single one with more knowledge and experience, yet she still looked so young, one of the privileges of being blessed as one of their kind; aging seeming to be nothing but a distant worry.

"Good morning to you boys, I am glad to see you again today, we always need charitable souls such as yourselves in these times of war. I shall not ask much of you on this day for there seems to be a temporary calm in our area." The Elder began, she was always polite but never had the time to stop and chat, and there was always something to be done, hence her cut to the chase attitude. "The guards at the western bridge have been having some trouble with the Oddfoot Pups lately, it seems they have been straying from their regular areas and troubling merchants and travellers who walk the paths to our city. Would you be so kind as to give the guards your aid in pushing the troublesome creatures back into their territory?"

"Absolutely, Elder. We shall head out straight away." Dieter answered and with that the two were off to the western bridge, a straightforward and short walk, they had arrived at their destination within a few minutes.

With a quick greeting and an explanation of how they had come to help the duo began on tackling the stray Oddfoot Pups. This was not as simple as herding sheep, the Oddfoot were Wraiths after all, so the less glamorous option was their only choice; cutting down the numbers, starting with the stray Oddfoot.

This was something Yumi and Dieter were used to, they had gotten used to killing these creatures. A sad thought really, but it was the truth and the two had become accustomed to it, no matter how you looked at it this was war and it was kill or be killed, a thought not too present in their minds because they had yet to fight a tough Wraith, but they understood perfectly.

Yumi drew his bow, Dieter began building up his mana. Simultaneously they had unleashed their attacks and the Oddfoot population had been cut down by two. Yumi took care of the left side and Dieter was manning the right. That same attack combination always in perfect sync, even if they weren't the best fighters out there they were a good team. This continued on for a short while, until there were no Oddfoot Pups left near the roads leading to Plume City. The duo returned to the western bridge where they received thanks and a small amount of coin for their troubles.

Back in the centre of the city and the Elder had another task for them. This task was different to any other they had accepted before, it required no real menial labour, just travelling, better yet; travelling from the Teleport Master at the centre of Plume City. Yumi had accepted the errand before he had even heard what had to be done, but Dieter had interjected hand requested the full details, _'Clever Dieter'_ he thought to himself.

"I need someone to travel to The City of Raging Tides for me in order to respond to a call for aid from the Tideborn Elder, and then report the details back to me. This has to be carried out as soon as possible so it is of the utmost importance. I trust you can handle it." Almost a command from the Winged-Elf Elder, it was the first time Yumi and Dieter had seen such a side to her, though it was still spoken in her polite and reserved way.

The duo hurried to their local teleporter and requested to be sent to the City of Raging Tides and before they knew it, they had arrived. Dieter always felt a little sick whenever he was teleported, it was something he just couldn't get past, although that was just his problem Yumi loved how little effort it required and wished he could teleport everywhere.

This was Yumi and Dieter's first time in the Tideborn capital, it was so different to theirs, the town square was bustling; it was so alive, there were people setting up shop everywhere and selling rare items and minerals. The city itself had a very blue glow about it, although it only seemed fitting, this was the City of Raging Tides; its native inhabitants were people of the sea. It took the two a while to regain their composure and begin walking towards the large palace they could see towards the back of the city. They weren't actually sure if they were going the correct way but their logic told them that if the Elder was to be anywhere he would be there.

A short walk across a grand pathway, which was somewhat deserted in comparison to the town centre, and up a rather large set of stone steps, Yumi and Dieter had reached the palace and much to their relief they had made the right choice the Tideborn Elder stood before them in front of the doorway to the palace.

"Young elves! A pleasure to see you, I am the Elder of this great city and on behalf of all Tideborn I welcome you to our home. How may I help you today?" The Elder welcomed the two warmly and happily, a hearty smile painted on his face.

"Thank you, sir. I am Dieter and this is Yumi, we have come here today to answer your call for aid." Straight to the point, Dieter knew how to handle these situations.

"I see. I thank you for coming." The Tideborn Elder's smile had completely disappeared without a trace, he continued "We Tideborn are facing a grave threat and we can no longer fight alone, we have requested help from the three great races of Human, Untamed and your kinsmen; the Winged Elves."

"If you don't mind my asking, sir, what is this threat?" Dieter questioned.

"Our race had been locked in fierce combat with our tribal enemies, the Nightspike, for generations. About ten years ago the battle had neared its climax when they began invading our land, attempting to wipe us out completely. Needless to say they were almost victorious in their goal, were it not for a single member of our race. This girl, she single-handedly turned the tables on the Nightspike, a grand achievement to be sure." The Elder looked to the east, a solemn look on his face. "The Nightspike retreated, but this girl would not let them escape, she chased them down and destroyed their homes on the island over yonder, some hate-ridden plan for revenge in order to fill the hole left by the Nightspike's similar actions."

"Her home was destroyed by the Nightspike too?" A grave tone was present in Yumi's voice as he spoke.

"Yes, you can understand what that would do to a child, I don't blame her for carrying out her own form of justice, but I cannot condone the choices she made on that day. I believe her actions may be the result of the situation we Tideborn find ourselves in now." The Elder's opinion was a strong one, if a little contradictory. Yumi could sense an air of justice about him, though it may be a little clouded by his sympathy for this girl. "The Nightspike lay in wait in the north-eastern hills, we are trapped in our city, awaiting an attack that could be launched at any time, an attack that we simply do not have the resources to defend against."

"Should we submit a formal request to our Elder to support the Tideborn forces against this attack, sir? I'm sure it would not be a problem for us to have our kinsmen stationed here to reinforce you." Dieter, much to Yumi's dismay, actually had some tactical knowledge.

"No, young Dieter, I fear that will only worsen the situation and prompt the Nightspike to launch a full scale attack. What they are after is not revenge on the Tideborn race, but revenge on this girl. Allow me to explain; that night she chased them back to their home, murdering all in her path, and she did not halt until she reached the Elder of the Nightspike. Nobody knows what happened but the Elder was found lying on his throne at the centre of the island, with that marked the end of the war, the Nightspike were at their end, not a single Nightspike man, woman or child was to be found alive anywhere on the island." The Tideborn Elder paused for a moment.

"Then… how are they here now?" Yumi, fully engrossed in the story couldn't help but ask in such an informal manner. That brought a slight smile back to the Elder's face, if only for a second.

"You ask the right question, young Yumi. Those Nightspike out there are not our lifelong enemies, they are just hollow creatures now, empty shells acting on nothing but their will for revenge. Yes, that is right… They are Wraiths now; they can do nothing but kill. Which brings me back to the nature of my request, I fear for the safety of my people, Wraiths slaughter all in their path, they will most definitely come for my people once their last wish for revenge has been carried out, that is a chance I do not wish to take. The Nightspike Wraiths are not likely to attack this city and our race before they have killed this girl, so I ask of you; please take her with you to Plume City and seek the advice of your Elder, she has much more experience dealing with the Wraiths than I do." It seemed like he was begging, Dieter was taken aback by this humble request from the Elder of a city.

"We'll do it!" Answered Yumi immediately, a look of horror slowly crept up onto Dieter's face as he turned to look at his air-headed friend. _'**What?!**' _Dieter couldn't speak, all he could do was shout at Yumi in his own head. "We'll do it, sir. We'll keep this girl safe, no matter what, and we will do all we can to find a way to get rid of those Nightspike!"

Dieter couldn't process this much stupidity in such a crucial and political situation all at once. It was all he could do to stop himself from yelling at Yumi right there on the spot. "Yes, but Yumi, shouldn't we-"

"But nothing, Dieter! This is a highly serious matter here and I don't think it would be wise to waste and time, we should take this girl and hurry back to Plume, I'll take full responsibility." Yumi interrupted, showing his serious side for the first time.

"Many thanks to you, young Winged Elves, me and my people owe you a great deal, excuse me." The Elder replied happily, the smile had returned to his face once again, a smile that was quite contagious, or at least Yumi thought. And with that the Elder hurried off into the palace.

"What is wrong with you?! You know we were only supposed to get the details and report back to the Elder! We're going to be in so much trouble, Yumi." Dieter reprimanded his friend, although the Winged-Elf Elder was a polite and generally happy woman Dieter always thought there was another side to her, how else could she have come through all those battles unscathed?

"Don't worry, man. It'll be okay. You know the Elder understands stuff like this, and she will definitely understand once we tell her what's happening over here. Besides how bad could it possibly be? All we're doing for the moment is keeping a girl safe from the Wraiths, and doing our best to protect a race of people, that sounds pretty noble to me." A smug grin had crept onto Yumi's face during his little speech, giving away his true intentions, whether he was aware of them or not.

"Oh, I see, you want to be the hero. I should have known." Dieter responded before turning to see the Tideborn Elder hurrying back towards them, followed by a female Tideborn of about 18 years of age.

"Dieter, Yumi, this is Seraphina." The Elder introduced them.

'_**One green eye, one covered by an eyepatch...**' _Dieter was worrying now.

* * *

Author's note:

With this story I would like to move away from the gameplay feel of Perfect World and try to create a atmosphere of realism in this fantasy world. All feedback is greatly appreciated and I do encourage criticism, tell me where you think I've done something wrong and I'll do my best to get it under control.

-Ultima


End file.
